Shout Outs to the Po-World

Writing is a solitary business.  This is good.  But sometimes it's nice to feel connected to a web of people who think about the same things (aubades, pantoums, and ghazals;  the score of an experience as translated into line breaks; assonance, form, and rogue sonnets; white space; submissions; ordering a manuscript, and other things that may sound foreign or -- gasp! -- boring to non-poets).

Here in South-of-the-River, I have a few poetry people that I've mentioned before on this blog:  The Poet A.O.D, fearless Tom, Todd of the West, and my new Monday morning group.  But I also feel lucky to have found a few po-people in the blogosphere.  I don't really know any of them, of course, but I like to read their blogs and see what they've been working on, thinking about, and reading.  Most of them I found through the Great Big Poetry Book Giveaway last April.  Here are a few shout outs for the blogs I follow as time permits:

Kelli Russell Agodon's Book of Kells is the first poetry blog I stumbled upon.  I found it about a year and a half ago when I googled "book of kells" -- I was actually looking for information about the famous illuminated manuscript.  Truthfully, I was both overjoyed and dumbfounded that there were people talking about poetry via the Internet (yes, I was way late to the party), and I became a regular reader.  Kelli's third book, Letters from the Emily Dickinson Room, comes out next month.  If you'd like to read some well-crafted, accessible poems around the theme of finding peace in a chaotic world, I suggest you buy a copy.

I read Sandy Longhorn's blog, Myself the Only Kangaroo Among the Beauty, because I enjoy her process notes -- her documentation of how she finds her way into a new draft.  I also like to know what she's reading, a topic she posts regularly about.  The title of her blog comes from a letter by Emily Dickinson.

At A View From the Potholes I can read about Marie Gauthier's thoughts on all things poetic from revision to contest fees, and find solidarity with another mom trying to write (Marie has two young children).  She recently had a lovely poem up on Hunger Mountain; you can read it here.

I "met" Stephanie Goehring when I won a copy of her chapbook, This Room Has a Ghost, in the Great Big Poetry Book Giveaway.  She blogs here, and recently entered the Iowa Writer's Workshop -- congrats, Stephanie.

I found Drew Myron's blog because of a giveaway she had going a few weeks ago (won myself a very cool Ex Libris journal, by the way -- thanks Drew).  I especially enjoyed this recent post about not waiting to be invited to the party, about creating the party yourself.  I think this is good advice in poetry, and in life, and it echoes some words of inspiration on the inside cover of my writing notebook:  Don't wait to be a writer someday.  Be a writer now.

Kudos to Emma Bolden (who I don't know from Eve, but who I found through.... ? ... someone) for her new project, The Yawp.  To quote her website:  "The Yawp is a public poetry project with one goal in mind: to get poetry out of dusty books and musty libraries, and into the hands, heads and hearts of the people."  As much as I adore dusty books and musty libraries, I also love any effort to spread poetry.  Emma invites us (you, me, everyone) to put a poem Out There Somewhere, document it, and send it in.  She posts all the Yawps on her website.  Any English teachers in the reading audience are hereby encouraged to give extra credit points to any student who submits a Yawp to The Yawp (English teacher, you know who you are; give them double-bonus points if they can tell you which American poet the word Yawp is closely associated with; and please forgive my ending the previous clause with a preposition).

Lastly for any of you who have a little..... well..... Book Habit.  If you know what I mean.  (Who me?)  Sandy Longhorn recently blogged about Better World Books where you can buy a great many titles for just a few shekels, and support a business that funds literacy initiatives around the world with its proceeds.  I bought a few books there last week, and was pleased (but not surprised) to find that Better World Books was founded by three fellow Domers (as those of us who attended the University of Notre Dame call ourselves).

In conclusion, I feel I must say:  Yay, poetry!